Just Walk Beside Me And Be My Friend
by anxious.soul
Summary: In which Rhodey comes over and spends some time with Tony, there's some tension within the team and there are cuddles.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers **

**Warnings/Tags: **Domestic Avengers, Post-Avengers (2012), Avengers Movie Night, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Adorable Tony Stark, Avengers Family, Couch Cuddles

**Cross-posted on my AO3 with a collage.**

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The Avengers had moved into _Avengers Tower_ (formerly known as Stark Tower) about a month after the Chitauri attack and so far so good. Tony had been incredibly accommodating towards the group…but he never showed his face to the team. No one quite knew what to say or think. Some (Steve) thought he was being ridiculously rude, others (Clint) thought he was simply busy. Natasha and Bruce, however, knew differently. They believed the man to be hiding under a series of facades and masks to keep from being hurt by coming to know the team. Bruce had been the only one to spend the most time with Tony since coming to live with the genius; the two spent hours on end doing science experiments together and having fun, Natasha knew what he was like from when she was undercover, the two had actually remained friends afterwards.

When one James Rhodes arrived, he only solidified and confirmed Natasha and Bruce's opinion.

**—LINE BREAK—**

"It's been a long time, Rhodey." Natasha murmured standing up to hug the man as he entered the communal living area,

"It's good to see you, Nat." He turned to the others and introduced himself,

"Does Tony know you're here?"

"Well, it's Tony. He _knew_ I was coming today, he probably forgot _today_ was _today_ though." Natasha nodded in amused understanding.

"He does lose himself in his work," Bruce added,

"That he does. That he does." Rhodey chuckled before his face fell serious, "how long has he been down there? He spent much time with you guys?"

"He's barely come up," Steve muttered with annoyance blatantly running through his voice, Clint eyed the super soldier and hastily set to fixing what the man said,

"What Steve means to say is that Tony's been down in his workshop a lot. He's popped out a couple of times, but mostly just to get coffee when his ran out! Oh, he's also made us some awesome weapons and armour and stuff, he's so talented and much kinder than you'd think. It is a shame that we haven't really talked to him much though." Clint added the latter as an afterthought.

"Yeah, he doesn't quite know when to stop, nor does he know how to interact." Rhodey murmured with a shake of his head and a sigh.

"Honey Bear!" Tony called as he entered stopping the conversation as the Colonel stood and opened his arms in time for the small genius to run into them.

"Hey, Tones." Rhodey smiled as he hugged his best friend before letting the younger man drag him towards the elevator with his mouth running a mile a minute,

"You need to see the suits I've made, I'm currently working on Mark 28. Oh! Guess what JARVIS did last week, he made a _joke_ completely unprompted and it was _amazing!_ Oooh, you'll never believe what Dum-E did yesterday…" The team could no longer hear Tony's excited rambles as the elevator doors closed.

**—LINE BREAK—**

Tony fell silent about ten minutes into his enthusiastic chatter, which worried the older man. He turned to find his best friend sitting on his stool with his head bowed to look at his hands that lay almost lifelessly in his lap.

"Tones?" Rhodey sat on one of the spinny chairs and rolled towards him, looking up at him from where he lowered his head in a successful attempt to look the genius in his cinnamon eyes, "what's wrong, bud?"

"I…"

"You better not be dying again." The Colonel joked though his eyes and facial expression was serious and anything but humorous.

"Honey Bear…I haven't slept in ages." He whispered and for him to confess something like that had Rhodey worried.

"What's going on? Or rather how long has this been going on?"

"Since the invasion."

"Oh, Tones. Talk to me. Let's sit over on the couch." He murmured gently leading the man to the old piece of furniture,

"I…_something_ is out there, Rhodey. _Something_ that I can't explain. That scares me." He continued to whisper, "When…when I went through that -that _wormhole_." His breathing seemed to pick up and James lifted Tony's head by his chin, the man's coffee orbs were wide and brewing with fear.

"Tony…are you…what did you see?"

"I…there was a bigger ship in the distance…just _watching_." Tony trembled as Rhodey pulled him in for a hug, "Platypus…the Chitauri…they were only the _beginning_."

"Okay. Okay." Rhodey murmured rocking slightly in an attempt to comfort Tony, "if we know now, we can make plans to protect the world. Got it? This is a good thing, Tones. Thank you for telling me."

"You believe me?"

"Of course I do." Rhodey stopped the rocking motion as a thought came over him, "Are you trying to tell me that the bunch upstairs have _ignored_ this?"

"No!" Tony exclaimed, "No. That's…that's a different…umm…issue."

"You gonna tell me, bud? Or am I going to have to guess?" The Colonel joked as silence fell on the pair.

**—LINE BREAK—**

"That was…"

"Lovely." Thor interrupted with a gentle grin,

"Well…I was going to say 'weird' or 'odd', but sure 'lovely' works too, I guess." Clint mumbled only shutting up due to Natasha's death-inducing glare.

"Why was it lovely?" Steve asked oblivious to the redhead turning her glare on him,

"All it looked like was Mr Stark was being rude and ignoring us as per usual."

"Captain, I believe your view on Anthony is wrong and you are unable to see beneath the many facades and masks he wears whenever he is within our company, and the public."

"I…what?" Steve questioned but was ignored,

"How do you know about his masks? Even Clint, a _trained_ _spy_, hasn't been able to see it." Natasha asked with a raised eyebrow before she took a sip through her straw staining her tongue blue as she drank her artificially coloured slush-puppie because she loved those and why not.

"He is like my brother. They both have similar masks to conceal their insecurities."

"Yeah…but your brother was a psychopath so…"

"Shut up, Clint."

"Just saying, Nat!"

"As someone who's actually spent time with Tony, I can gladly say that Thor is right." Bruce added his piece, "Tony is really fun. He was oddly shy when we first started hanging out, but we're really good friends now."

"You need to give him a chance, Steve. Clint, you should too."

"What did I do?" He whined to the redhead,

"Nothing. That's the point, you've done nothing to be friends." The archer leaned back and nodded thoughtfully.

**—LINE BREAK—**

The exhausted genius told his best friend about how disconnected he felt with the team altogether. Sure, he got along with Bruce. They did science together after all. He and Nat…they had an interesting friendship, they were somewhat protective over each other but refused to take any bullshit from the other or against the other. Thor…he intimidated Tony quite a bit, but he also really liked the god and they had formed a friendship, only Tony acted incredibly shy when he was around the large blond. Clint and Steve though…Tony hadn't spent much time with the two outside of the field. Clint was alright and the genius was sure they could be great friends, but at the same time, the archer had a pretty cold exterior making it hard for Tony to approach him. Steve, well, he'd made it blatantly clear that he thought the genius to be an obnoxious, selfish and arrogant man. Tony didn't have a single hope to be his childhood hero's friend.

"Tones…maybe you should give them a chance. Hang out together with everyone and not just Dr Banner." Tony snorted,

"Like they'd want to hang out with me." God, Rhodey hated the man's almost non-existent self-esteem,

"Actually, Nat told me it's movie night tonight and that she'd love it if I could -and I quote- 'drag your perfect arse upstairs to watch the Titanic and see Clint bawl his eyes out 'cause he's a pussy'."

"…she said my butt was perfect?"

"I hate you," Rhodey muttered because, of course, that was the one thing Tony took from that.

"I'll…are you staying? I'll come if you are…"

"Of course, Tones."

**—LINE BREAK—**

And so, the Avengers plus Rhodey were snuggled under blankets with popcorn and other snacks, spread across three couches and an armchair. The resident billionaire genius was laying across two people, his head was in Rhodey's lap, said man was running his hand through Tony's hair, whilst his feet were propped on top of Natasha's lap, the redhead was gently massaging his feet and ankles. There was something calming about it. The others found themselves watching the scene with soft smiles and slightly envious shades of green in their eyes.

Tony was like a cat -or rather a kitten. That's something everyone could agree on. Harmless despite his attempts and incredibly adorable. A busy bee and at the same time, when you could finally get him to settle down, he was literally as lazy as a cat under rays of the warm golden sun. It was almost impossible to deny that man anything when he gave the team those wide cinnamon eyes tainted with whisky and _that_ adorable pout. He was too cute for his own good. So much so that he had the cold, calculative Black Widow wilting and doing as he asked, same goes with Nick Fury.

As the team came closer, one of the most frequently said sentences in their home was unsurprisingly said to Tony.

_"Stop being so cute."_

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**Here's my tumblr if you're interested, it also has the story collages: anxious- - -soul (no spaces between the dashes but sucks and wouldn't allow the dashes without spaces)**

**Anyway,**  
**Thank you for reading,**  
**Hope you enjoyed this,**  
**Please review,**  
**No hate -don't like, don't read**

**Bye~**


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